How easy is it to emigrate to Canada?

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does it depend on your job, your age or how much money you have?

am 41, dh is 45, no professional qualifications or degrees, family over there, aunts, cousins etc

any advice welcome

bump

You can't just get up and go there - you'd need a visa. But I do think there may be a lottery you can apply for.
Have you tried looking up the Canadian consulate in the UK and the information they can provide?

www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/apply.asp

Oops www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/apply.asp

What kind of jobs will you be looking for? If its something there is a demand for you can apply for jobs and the employer can sponsor you.

bloody difficult iirc. Neighbours emigrated there a few years ago, it took them five years to get their visa's and he was on the saught after jobs list.

car mechanic job, mainly, or driver

not really sought after, I dont know what sort of things are sought after out there

wannabe, how did your neighbours live there for 5 years without a visa? and what ages were they?

thanks!

yes, it does take a long time to be processed. If you apply from outside Canada you have to wait to be approved before you come to Canada. I applied from inside Canada (before other visa expired) so I am allowed to stay while it is processed.

We are in Canada, went out on a temporary work permit and now have permanent residency. It wasn't easy!

Looks like you might be able to apply for a visa using family sponsorship but you won't be very high on points, as you are older, not very qualified and may not have skills in demand.

Try the CIC quiz, it's pretty good at giving people an idea of if they will be successful. I think this link should work: www.cic.gc.ca/ctc-vac/cometocanada.asp

"does it depend on your job, your age or how much money you have?"

Yes.

Sorry - I think it's highly unlikely you'd be able to get permanent residence in Canada from what you've described. You're too far removed from your relatives for them to be able to sponsor you (if they even would agree to do so, as that would make them financially responsible for you for 10 years!) What you would get is a few extra points for what's called "adaptability" because of having family in Canada already. Your education, age and the occupation you listed (would all count against you :( and more importantly, the main/fundamental criteria for admission now is that you have a job on "The List" of occupations in demand. If you really are desperate to move over here in the future, the most realistic route would be for whichever of you is the qualified car mechanic at the moment to try as hard as possible to move into a job where their title could be realistically described as "Heavy-duty equipment mechanics", "Crane operators" or "Machinists and machining and tooling inspectors" for 2 years AND hope that whichever of those occupations they choose doesn't get bumped off the list each time a new list is released... Basically, if the mechanic can gain experience in a field that's petrochem related, it's likely to be your only hope of a way into Canada.

Plus you might actually get a job when you get here. In fact I'd not personally come over without a job lined up (also gets you extra points). I've heard some very sad stories about people arriving with high hopes and really struggling because they couldn't get decent jobs.